Why Slicing is FINE and the system WORKS. A MUST READ

Originally posted by Daellia and the single best summary of how slicing will effect the economy.

First, Slicing wasn't nerfed. I can confirm that my cash inflow (I keep a log of slicing missions) is roughly the same as it was yesterday.

Second:

Quote:This is how slicing ruins the economy. If it can be sold for more, it will be. Those that cannot afford it (did not take slicing) are isolated and left behind. If there was no slicing, that is, if some players weren't effortlessly making much more credits than everyone else, the GTN would stabalize itself because sellers would have to compromise on price. They will have to make their goods available to everyone and not just the ones with disposable incomes

You're only doing a first-order analysis. What you've failed you take into account is that those that don't have slicing by definition have another profession, one that generates materials that by definition some of those that took slicing will need. This means the income of those that didn't take slicing goes up, while the income of those that did take slicing stays the same. The only people that get screwed are those that don't know about/understand the GTN, or those that take no professions at all. Once you take a higher-order analysis of the impact, it's quite clear that there's no issue.

Inflation is an issue in the real world because of two reasons. First, limited resources placing a cap on the total amount of "value" that can be in a currency, and thus and effective limit on the amount of currency that can exist. This allows cash-hoarding to be an issue, as those holding on to cash lower the effective ceiling on the rest of the society, raising themselves further in relation. The rich get richer, essentially. Secondly, one person's increased income, due to the above hoarding, does not necessarily translate into another's gain through trickle-down economics.

In game, however, there are two effects that completely negate the danger of inflation. Firstly, there's no cap on value. An effectively unlimited amount of credits may be created in game. Secondly, the economy is not completely player-driven like EVE's. NPC exchanges exist, and these have a flat rate. In addition, there are a number of flat non-inflating prices that keep the system in check, such as mission prices, repair cost, NPC goods prices, etc. Lastly, slicers gain their income from the system itself, rather than by depriving others of that money. Because of this, hoarding is irrelevant. In the real world, hoarding causes currency to collect in areas, depriving the reset of the system. In game, if someone hoards credits and never spends them, as far as the player economy is concerned, they might as well have never earned them. They don't count as a "slicer" if they aren't spending the income.

Income can be spend split between NPC exchanges and player exchanges. NPC exchanges are of static price, and excluding a couple vanity items (the several models of 1.5M credit speeders), there's no real dump for cash of that scale. Repairs are static and cheap. Thus that money is either hoarded and unspent, in which case it doesn't even factor into the player economy, or it is spent and translated directly to the gatherers, particularly those that took the professions that the slicers generally skimp on (at the moment, this generally means mission skills). Those gatherers gain the benefit from the slicers, and everyone wins. Inflation is meaningless, it's a closed system.

Excessively simplified example. Let's say the economy only has 2 people in it, Slicer and Gatherer. Slicer is earning a million credits per hour. Gatherer is generating a thousand crafting mats per hour. Gatherer sells half of his mats per hour, and Slicer uses half of his income to buy mats each hour. Per hour, each character will have the same income: half a million credits and 500 crafting mats.

It's even self-balancing. If there are too many gatherers, supply goes up, demand stays the same, prices and profits go down, slicing becomes relatively more lucrative, and some of the gatherers drop gathering for slicing. If there's too many slicers, demand goes up, supply stays the same, prices and profits go up, some of the slicers swap to gathering. There's no real financial barrier to entry, and the time-delay barrier to entry for swapping prevents slinky effects.

The system works if you let it. You just have to look deeper than the first week (when the economy is the very definition of volatile, with everyone leveling and everyone also starting at zero cash) and the first-order analysis. Slicers distribute that money right back to the gatherers, but because they don't take that money from the gatherers in the first place to get "rich", it's irrelevant.

Frankly, I can't think of a better system to prevent gold-selling. If the absolute most optimal way to make cash is easy and available to everyone, then the gold-sellers have nothing to go off of. Anyone can make credits just as easily as they can.

You can't make enough with crafting that people want to spend a lot of credits on. So the credits never really flow from the slicers to the non-slicers.

So everyone is trapped in being forced to take slicing so their "in" the economy.

If you don't take slicing, to use a modern day example, it's the effect of putting your cash under your matress. Eventually, it's worthless by inflation. If you invest it, we'll call this slicing because it makes continuous money, you're in the market, making the same money everyone else is.

If crafting made a lot of highly sought after goods and the gearing up process wasn't fundamentally ruled by bop's and vendor items at max level you would be 100% correct.

First, it is not my essay nor my work. It was posted by Daellia and I felt that the analysis he provided warranted its own thread.

Second, you were looking at the immediate forecast for the economy without realizing how it will balance itself. Crafters WILL make items in very high demand; players do need to get to max level though.

Also realize that whatever gathering/mission profession the slicer "skipped out on" will require him to purchase those materials on the GTN.

The system will balance itself out and and ebb and flow as necessary; one major thing is that it is SPOT ON the best way to prevent gold spammers.

I dropped UT for slicing around level 20 ish - I'm now 28 with about 400k, I actively buy the mats that I would have gotten from UT and also with my influx of money being higher than what I would expect for my level, find myself indulging in other items on the GTM that I wouldn't otherwise.

I buy player made items and armour for my main, alts and friends often, Thus putting a majority of my slicing earning exactly where they are meant to be going. Other players.

Beyond people that are simply hording credits I see slicing as being quite invaluable to the economy at this early stage in the game, helping to boost sales on the GTM by giving slicers somewhat of a disposable income

Quote:
Originally Posted by CTifer

How dare you BioWare. When I pre-ordered, it said it would come with up to 5 days of early access. I got in today. That's 6 days.
Apparently their programmers don't know how to count.
#VeryUpset

I love slicing. It is a reliable way to make credits that does not involve fussing around with the GTN.

However, it is at an advantage over the crafting/gathering crew skills from a fundamental level.

Slicing will always generate (sans nerf) the same amount of credits no matter the number of transactions. Gathering/crafting will increase supply the more transactions take place, thus decreasing the price. Therefore, marginal profit for gatherers/crafters will decrease as the number of transactions increase.

Maximum profitability for slicing is slicing as much as possible. Maximum profitability for crafters/gatherers depends on elasticity of the market. Most likely maximum profitability will compromise some volume for price.

TLDR: You cannot gather/craft endlessly for endless profit in the same way that a slicer can continue to slice with the same profit margin for every transaction.

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The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.